OK. we've heard from the doom sayers about this year--what exact moves
have we made that lead you to believe we will be successful this year?
And, please remember to be specific...thanks.

Sorry, Buzzzzzznnnnnn (however you make a buzzer sound), but we haven't heard enough from the doomsayers--we haven't heard any specifics. Improve the OL is not a specific.

The very phrasing of your question shows you don't understand what teams deal with--the question isn't "what exact moves have we made that lead you to believe we will be successful this year"--if you are attempting to cogently criticize a team (as the above post was) it is what moves were available this year, that we did not take advantage of, at a financially responsible (i.e. salary cap wise) cost which would have made us more successful? Got an answer for that one anyone---crickets...crickets...?

what I wonder is everyone thinks a team needs to make a big splash with a big name.. what gets overlooked is does that player fit the teams philosophy.

NE does it with solid drafting..

NFL

Redskins made splash after splash..and where has that gotten them? on paper they looked good
MLB
Yankees.. they spent and spent..and when was the last year they won the world series? (yankees with 200 million payroll.. astros what about 80 million? we have 2 more losses then them)

Personally, new starters at three Linebacker positions, a new corner, and a significant player on the DL is enough change for me right now. The Redskins made a bunch of moves last season that were highly regarded and look where it got them. Right now all the "experts" are touting the Cowboys as having the best offseason and the Texans as having one of the worst, but the standard for "NFL expert" isn't very high these days. I trust some of the guys opinions on this board moreso than Dr. Z or Peter King or their equivalents. I think the defense might start off slow, with some mistakes, gambles, overpursuit etc but will settle in as a unit with good speed all around and some pretty fearless players when it comes to making the hit at nearly every section of the defense.

I guess some of you forgot that we have four new starters on defense.
We also have Pbuch, J Mathis, and R Swinton returning kicks this year and we are running shorter routes on offense this year. If you dont consider these major changes than i dont know what is

After re-reading all of this, I realize that a lot of what I said seems very pessissistic, and that is unfair to the Texans. They have improved. I guess what frustrates me is that when I look at the team last year, I see potential for some super elite players if they had slightly better surroundings. Carr and Davis with a better O-line, Johnson with a better no. 2 receiver and a decent TE. My argument doesnt make any sense, because I don't know how much could have actually happened, but all Im saying is that the offense last year was good, but not elite. It has the potential to be elite, but is missing a few pieces, and we still dont have those.

As for d, I think the changes we made could go either way. I love Buchannon, but I also loved glenn and sharper. I even liked foreman a lot. What I saw of Peek, however, was great, and so who knows what will happen.

After re-reading all of this, I realize that a lot of what I said seems very pessissistic, and that is unfair to the Texans. They have improved. I guess what frustrates me is that when I look at the team last year, I see potential for some super elite players if they had slightly better surroundings. Carr and Davis with a better O-line, Johnson with a better no. 2 receiver and a decent TE. My argument doesnt make any sense, because I don't know how much could have actually happened, but all Im saying is that the offense last year was good, but not elite. It has the potential to be elite, but is missing a few pieces, and we still dont have those.

As for d, I think the changes we made could go either way. I love Buchannon, but I also loved glenn and sharper. I even liked foreman a lot. What I saw of Peek, however, was great, and so who knows what will happen.

Now we are in complete agreement. There are many players on the team who seem like they could thrive IF other things went well. AJ in Indy, DD in KC or Denver, Sharper in Pittsburgh, etc. Foley in San Diego...well let's let that one go. It is very frustrating to see pieces not seem to reach their full potential, but it is still building a team that is the bottom line.

I simply have little or no common ground with anyone who thinks that the Texans haven't made "big moves" during this off season. Those same people probably feel like the Texans haven't made much progress in the last three years too. I also disagree with that.

Everyone who's not happy with the Texans at this point in time needs to meet at a location to be named later so I can sit them down and show them the 2002 Texans game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

OK. we've heard from the doom sayers about this year--what exact moves
have we made that lead you to believe we will be successful this year?
And, please remember to be specific...thanks.

For one thing, hopefully all the crybabies have tickets to the game this year...and they can be as verbal in voice as on this board.

You tell me, how many delay of game penalties were "induced" due to Texan crowd noise in 2004 versus 2003? I call that a specific improvement... and judging from the board the crop of naysayers on these threads so far... 2005 looks pretty promising! (Sorry to be so sarcastic, but I just want the season to start and the time for conjecture to over.)

I am willing to let this year be a wash, if we can build into a contender year in and year out and go to big dance and WIN. I think some want to win and win now who cares about 2006. I prefer 2006-2007-2008-2009-2010 with winning seasons playoff appearances and playoff wins

I'm holding off on judgement on the changes we've made until at least mid-season. My first reaction is that we took a step back. That is honestly an uninformed reaction though. I know little of Greenwood and know only that Buchanon is a self-proclaimed playmaker. Sharper, Foreman and Glenn were all veterans with a known set of skills. Sharper and Foreman were a liability in pass defense but were good tacklers. Glenn never seemed impressive to me last season but that could be because offenses were trying to take advantage of Dunta.

On paper it seems we did get faster on D but does that automatically translate to improvement?

Special teams definately SEEMS to be improved because Moses was so slow kickers ran him down from behind. But...if we don't have players executing the blocking (or have faulty schemes) then we'll still be average at best.

The thing I'm counting on is my X-factor: How many 2-4 year players do we have that will improve to above average play?

-If Carr, Davis, Johnson, Gaffney, Pitts and Wand all improve we will be a good offense.
-How about Robinson, Babin, Peek and Earl? Will they begin to play at a superior level?
-Do we have anyone on the roster that we're not expecting to play a lot that may become that sleeper (Charlie Anderson, Shantee Orr, Faggins) that launches us into the next level?

Time will be the judge. Patience is the key to building dynasties. That's my hope that one day we'll read about the Texans being the team that won 4 of 6 Superbowls or won 3 straight. Year 5 and no playoffs...

Trust me, as bad as that game seemed to all of us at the time there's no comparison. The progress is extraordinary really. It's more than just 3 more wins in 2004 than in 2002.

I think many of us have short memories and have forgotten where we started.

That goes for both sides as far as forgetting--last year we were 0-7
against play off teams, 4 of our 7 victories were against the Titans
and the Jags, who-by the way-were the only team with a winning record
that we beat. This is going to be a telling year for the Texans in that
there is no doubt we will know once and for all how far we've come. Our
first 2 games against the Bills and Steelers will let us know--real quick--
where the Texans are headed in 2005. I've said it before and I'll say it
again, I believe effective coaching is the key to winning in the NFL. Those
coaches that have their players ready to play with effective/innovative
game plans are going to excel and have the best chance of winning games
week in and week out.

I hear a lot of people talking about defensive changes, but what I'm talking about is OFFENSE. Heres what I hear a lot of in regards to offense:

Another year will let the offense gel together and we will make some big improvements.

My argument is that in the first games of the season before the bye week,we scored on average about 23 points per game.

Over the rest of the season, we scored 17 points per game.

Similarly, our OL gave up 2.6 sacks per game in the games before the bye week.

Over the rest of the season, we gave up 3.3 sacks per game (including 6 to the Browns!!)

So what does this tell me? Our offense actually made negative progress over the course of the season as they had time to "gel" with each other. We scored an average of 1 td less per game and gave up almost a full extra sack per game, and this was after playing together for a while. So with this in mind, how can anyone say that another year of offseason is all we need to bolster our offense?

Blame that on being in a great league and the use of game film identifying an appropriate manner to defense a young team. Carr and the offense had trouble with Cover2 and teams used that more than blitz packages w/man coverage as the year wore on. Like most young teams the Texans were wildly inconsistent (the Texans still had several starters who has 3 years experience or less). Keep in mind the offense was the league worst the year before. Last year the team jumped from 31st in the league in total offense to 19th in the league. The Texans had 300 first downs (63 more than a season ago), the number of three-and-out series decreased by 27. Also, the Texans’ offense finished in the top half of the league last season in the number of five-minute drives. If we ended up with one of the worst statistical offenses in the NFL again, I’d be pessimistic…but we didn’t. We made progress if you care to dig deep enough to find it.

Ok, progress. The point several posters have tried to make about last
year is that there was little progress (rushing only) made in the last half
of the season. Our offense was no where to be found in terms of passing
or scoring points. What happened and why were we unable to do anything
about it?

The NFL has never been an 'old' player employer, as the avg tenure is
not that great and I already posted stats about the avg # yrs experience
of teams in our division. I am really looking forward to this season because
it will be nice to see the Texans compete on an 'even' playing field with
everyone else. Here's hoping that another years experience will make all
the difference in the world!!

Ok, progress. The point several posters have tried to make about last
year is that there was little progress (rushing only) made in the last half
of the season. Our offense was no where to be found in terms of passing
or scoring points. What happened and why were we unable to do anything
about it?

The NFL has never been an 'old' player employer, as the avg tenure is
not that great and I already posted stats about the avg # yrs experience
of teams in our division. I am really looking forward to this season because
it will be nice to see the Texans compete on an 'even' playing field with
everyone else. Here's hoping that another years experience will make all
the difference in the world!!

There was a lot of progress in the passing game. However, they aren't as separate as you make them out to be... That's the point vinny was making. When teams were blitzing and playing 8 in the box, Carr was a top 5 rated QB. Around the Denver or GB game, teams figured out that they could play us almost strictly 7 in the box and play cover 2, while rushing 4 linemen. When that happened, Davis had more success. However, it bogged down our passing game considerably and we had difficulty scoring TDs. Last year, teams began respecting and gameplanning against our vertical passing game. That's what led to DD's statistically great 2nd half and also what led to Carr's/AJ's struggles.

There was a lot of progress in the passing game. However, they aren't as separate as you make them out to be... That's the point vinny was making. When teams were blitzing and playing 8 in the box, Carr was a top 5 rated QB. Around the Denver or GB game, teams figured out that they could play us almost strictly 7 in the box and play cover 2, while rushing 4 linemen. When that happened, Davis had more success. However, it bogged down our passing game considerably and we had difficulty scoring TDs. Last year, teams began respecting and gameplanning against our vertical passing game. That's what led to DD's statistically great 2nd half and also what led to Carr's/AJ's struggles.

I have a different point of view/concern here--everyone knows what other
teams did to stop our passing success of the first few games, the cover 2.
So, knowing this, what did the coaching staff come up with to counter the
cover 2? Anything? Every opponent is going to have a defensive game
plan to stop our offense, a game plan that may be based on another teams
success against us or something new. This is a given. What's not a given is
whether or not we can counter that defensive game plan--we can add this
player or that player or more speed or more of this or that---that's fine---
but we better start coming up with 'something' that puts/keeps us in the
game. Nine games is a long time to go with no way to combat a defensive
scheme (cover 2), and there is always going to be another and another
scheme. The easy part is identifying the scheme--hard part is doing some-
thing about it to score the points needed to win...

In effect you are eluding to what appears to be a Caper's inability to adapt on the fly. I have always felt that he can't adjust if his game plan falls apart for whatever reason. I know I'm being negative, but I believe that is a weakness of his. His maticulos note taking while the game is progressing and his attention to detail is very suggestive of that kind of person. He's the type of person who has to sit back and analyze before making change. Michael Jordan was what he was because he could mentally adjust no matter what was happening. That's a god given ability. I have always felt Capers was and is a great assistant coach, but not a head coach. I just don't believe he has the talent to be a great field leader. Again, that has nothing to do with him as a person, its just he doesn't have certain god given skills.